21.04.2021

£222k for non fatal crushing incident

A UK based demolition contractor has been fined £200,000 plus costs after a serious crushing incident with a boom lift.

The company, Bradley Demolition, had provided an articulated boom lift to one of its contracted employees to reach and remove asbestos sheets from a building in Bredbury, near Stockport/Manchester on November 2nd, 2017. While working under the roof, the boom lift operator became trapped by his neck between the platform guardrail and the underside of the roof structure. As a result, he suffered life changing injuries which will require lifelong care.

An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive found that the platform was not fitted with a secondary guarding/anti entrapment system which might have helped prevent this sort of incident from happening or at least causing such serious injuries, especially important when working on the underside of a roof in a boom lift.
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A simple system such as this - or the mechanical/electronic alternatives now fitted as standard to many boom lifts - could have prevented this incident

The risk assessment produced by the company did not sufficiently identify the entrapment hazard, and there was no effective communication with anyone on the ground, such as a banksman. An inadequate plan led to the operator being trapped for a sustained period of time before he was rescued.

Bradley Demolition of Preston pleaded guilty and was fined £200,000 plus costs of £21,839.

HSE inspector David Argument said: “If a suitable safe system of work had been in place prior to the incident, the life changing injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.”